Lady of Quality in France with a Red Striped Cape, Jefferys Costume Plate, 1757

An original antique print, a copper engraving colored by hand, lettered "Habit of a Lady of Quality in France." A woman walks toward the viewer wearing a small black hat with pink plumes over dark hair, a fluted ruff and a white standing collar. Over her shoulders is a short red cape striped with gold bands and lined with ermine, its sleeves puffed high at the shoulder, and beneath it a dark blue bodice laced with gold. Her long pale pink overskirt is caught up to show a dark blue underskirt with a deep border of gold, and a long cord ending in a tassel and a small gold ornament hangs from her waist. Her lowered hand at the viewer's left emerges from a ruffled cuff.

Two lines of lettering run below the figure. The English title, in a flowing script, reads "Habit of a Lady of Quality in France." The French caption beneath it reads "Dame de France", meaning "Lady of France", and the number 125 is engraved at lower right. The plate carries no engraver or designer credit.

This is a plate from Volume II of A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Antient and Modern, published in London in 1757 by Thomas Jefferys in the Strand. Its title page announces the figures as taken "After the Designs of Holbein, Vandyke, Hollar, and others," and the book was also titled in French, Recueil des Habillements de Différentes Nations. It falls among the French figures of the volume. The plate itself was published in 1757.

The single figure on a plain ground suits a simple mount and a narrow frame, and it hangs well beside other plates from the same series.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.